Pie Town - Lynne Hinton [113]
Now, many years after my first visit to Pie Town, I have discovered that there is a place that serves pie. The Pie-O-Neer Café, open now for more than ten years, has become quite successful. The owner, Kathy Knapp, has found a great place for herself in Pie Town, and I’m happy to include a recipe from the Pie-O-Neer below. I hope you enjoy it! And if you’re in the neighborhood of Pie Town, New Mexico, please stop by and have a slice. Tell them I sent you!
Pie-O-Neer Pecan Oat Pie
¼ cup butter
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup light Karo syrup
½ cup dark Karo syrup
3 eggs
¾ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup toasted pecan pieces
pie shell
Cream together butter and sugar. Add cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Stir in syrups. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition until blended. Stir in rolled oats. Cover bottom of pie shell with toasted pecan pieces, reserving a sprinkling for the top. Pour mixture into pie shell, sprinkle rest of pecan pieces on top and bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) about one hour, or until knife inserted in center of pie comes out clean.
From Kathy Knapp
Owner of Pie-O-Neer Café,
Pie Town, New Mexico
Turn the page for a sneak peek
at the next book in the Pie Town series,
due out in Summer 2012 . . .
Everybody in Pie Town knew exactly where they were and what they were doing when the bolt of lightning struck the transformer at a substation near the edge of town, cutting off power for half of Catron County for more than two hours. It was late, about nine o’clock in the evening, and most everyone was in some stage of preparing for bed.
Oris Whitsett was standing at the bathroom sink. He was shaving, something he liked to do at night after his shower. He found that the hot water, the steam, the clean way he felt, the freshness of a newly shaved face, relaxed him and made it easier for him to fall asleep.
A person who enjoyed a morning shower and shave for most of his life, Oris had begun this nightly ritual when Alice, his wife, got sick and came home from the hospital. He found that he had so much to do in the mornings getting her up and ready that he never had time until evening to think about himself and his own needs. She also seemed to appreciate his smooth face and warm body when he snuggled in bed next to her at night before falling asleep. It became a part of his pattern of caregiving and intimacy, but even years after she had died, he found he still liked a late night shower. He enjoyed an evening shave.
He had a towel wrapped around his waist and another around his shoulders, and his face was covered in a white, thick foamy cream. He was getting ready to place the razor just at the top of his cheek when the power went out. He waited. Oris was used to the flickering of lights that often happened in Catron County, New Mexico, in the spring and summer. High winds sometimes made for power surges in the area. Usually, there were only flickers, no real outages.
He had noticed the signs of an evening storm earlier when he went over to visit his neighbor, Millie Watson, who had taken a serious fall a few weeks earlier and had just returned from the long-term care facility in town. Her daughter had come home with her, planning to stay a couple of weeks until Millie was able to take care of herself. Oris had stopped over with two takeout enchilada dinners prepared especially for them by Fred and Bea. He had stayed for only a short time, maybe twenty minutes, and he was walking home about seven in the evening when he noticed the stirring of the wind and the tight clouds bunching overhead. He considered then that he should take his shower and shave before it got dark, but then he had gotten home and turned on the television and become interested in some show about ghosts and haunted houses. Before he knew